Have Fun with a Cigar Box Guitar

I’ve been playing, or should I say learning, the guitar for over thirty years but I’ve only recently discovered the fun that can be had with a simple cigar box guitar.

If you are new to cigar box guitars I should explain what they are. A cigar box guitar is, as the name suggests, a guitar made from a cigar box. They tend to be home made instruments that use a cigar box as the resonator in the same way that an acoustic guitar uses its guitar body to amplify the sound from the strings.

Back in the 19th century cigars were far more popular than they are today. They began to package cigars in wooden boxes from around the middle of the 19th century and people soon found a use for these boxes in various home made instruments.

It’s quite simple to turn a cigar box into a basic guitar using a length of wood and a few tuning pegs and this is why they became a popular form of folk instrument. The simplest of cigar box guitars might have only one string, but they are commonly made with three strings and no frets. A bottleneck slide, knife or even a piece of animal bone can be used to fret the steel strings.

Cigar box based musical instruments are a traditional form of folk instrument that could easily be made using items that would otherwise have been thrown away. There has been something of an explosion in interest in these simple home made instruments, partly fuelled by the internet. And its not essential that you use a cigar box to make home made musical instruments. Many creative cigar box guitar builders use anything from oil drums to biscuit tins and lunch boxes to make some fine sounding instruments.

So if you are struggling with complex chords on your six string guitar why not put it to one side and get yourself a three string cigar box guitar and get back to some roots music.

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